Brief of points and proofs in regard to the proposed appropriation to enable the President to procure the surrender of the patent issued to Dr. W.T.G. Morton, for the discovery of the anaestetic properties of sulphuric ether.

  • United States. 32d Congress. House.
Date:
[1852?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Brief of points and proofs in regard to the proposed appropriation to enable the President to procure the surrender of the patent issued to Dr. W.T.G. Morton, for the discovery of the anaestetic properties of sulphuric ether. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Brief of Points and Proofs in regard / to the proposed appropriation to en- ^** able the President to procure the surrender of the Patent issued to r, Dr. W. T. G. Morton, for the dis- o-C/ covert/ of the anaesthetic properties of sulphuric ether. Report of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives, 32d Con- m^o O o m As a remonstrance against the appropriation to take up the patent of Dr. Morton, for the Ether Discovery, has been laid upon the tables of Members of Congress, it is proper they should know lhat there are about 1500 physicians in the State of Massachusetts, and 300 in the city of Boston alone. The number of signers does not equal the number who have writ- ten voluntary letters to Washington, in Dr. Morton's behalf. It is not signed by a single surgeon who had charge of the Massachusetts General Hospital during the year, or for years after, Dr. Morton ma.de his discovery and instituted his ex- periments in that institution. They have all testified in his favor.—See Report. It is signed by only 144 physicians, den- tists, and all, and these are, many of them, from among the professional rivals of Dr. Morton, who originally denounced the discovery, and are not of Boston and its vicinity, but are scattered all over the State.—See State Record. This failure to get more than a hundred and forty-four names from 1500, after the contestants have canvassed the State for several months, only confirms what was always conceded a fixed fact, that the great body of the medical men are for Dr. Morton. among surgeons irom an early period. In my surgical lectures I have almost annually alluded to it, and stated the means which I have usually adopted for the attainment of the object. I have also freely declared that, not- withing the use of very large doses of narcotic substances, this desideratum had never been satisfactorily obtained.